Live: Five Palestinian journalists killed, Gaza media office says

Although the killing of Sinwar will be seen as another major blow to Hamas, it is highly unlikely that it will affect its long-term strategy, writes Azzam Tamimi.

Israel succeeded many times before in almost decapitating the movement. Yet, it has not managed to weaken its resolve, let alone crush it. 

Hamas is an institutional movement with an elected leadership. It has no personality cult, and leaders who perish are immediately and smoothly replaced. 

It remains to be seen who is likely to succeed Sinwar. Perhaps this time it is more likely to be someone in the diaspora.

And it is possible that the movement will decide to live for the time being with a deputy leader until the elections are held. However, elections are unlikely to be held until the war is over.

Sinwar, like all his predecessors who were assassinated by Israel, will be celebrated by many people as a great martyr who perished fighting invaders.

From the Palestinian perspective, this would be considered the most noble and the most honourable of deaths. 

The views expressed belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Read more: 'Yahya Sinwar died fighting Israel. His death will not defeat Hamas'

The entire population of the Gaza Strip remains at risk of famine and is currently experiencing an "emergency" level of acute food insecurity, a global hunger monitoring body has said, with the situation expected to deteriorate as Israel tightens its siege on the north of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

In a new UN-backed assessment published on Thursday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said around 1.84 million people across Gaza are living through high levels of acute food insecurity, including 133,000 people who are suffering "catastrophic" food insecurity.

An estimated 60,000 cases of acute malnutrition among young children were expected between September 2024 and August 2025, it added.

No food or aid of any kind has entered northern Gaza since 1 October amid a massive ground operation launched by the Israeli army.

Read more: All of Gaza 'at risk of famine' as Israel chokes off the north

The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 62 people have been killed and 300 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the last 24 hours.

This brings the total death toll in Gaza since the start of the war to at least 42,500, with 99,546 wounded.

In recent weeks, the Israeli military has ordered a full evacuation of northern Gaza’s remaining 400,000 people, following the start of its major ground operation there on 6 October.

The Jabalia refugee camp has been one of the focuses of the military campaign, which has trapped people in their homes across the north for weeks.

Palestinians fear that the Israeli army is laying the groundwork for what has come to be known as the "General’s Plan", which involves depopulating northern Gaza and then besieging the region - including preventing the entry of humanitarian supplies - to starve out anyone left, including Palestinian fighters.

US President Joe Biden has called Yahya Sinwar's killing a "moment of justice" and "an opportunity to seek a path to peace" in Gaza.

Speaking in Berlin, Biden said he told had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use this moment as "an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas".

He added that Sinwar has "the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands".

Mourning Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the Qassam Brigades, the group's military wing, said in a statement on Friday: "We announce the martyrdom of the great leader Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas movement, who was martyred while advancing and not retreating. It is a source of pride that our movement presents its leaders before the soldiers, and that its leaders are at the forefront of the martyrs of our people.

"We entered this decisive and major battle alongside the factions of resistance, knowing that the price of liberation is very high.

“Our struggle will not stop until Palestine is liberated, the last Zionist is expelled, and we regain all our legitimate rights. The enemy is delusional if it thinks that the flame of resistance will extinguish or retreat by assassinating its leaders."

Palestinian political and armed groups on Friday mourned the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in written statements.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said: "The great national leader Yahya Sinwar was martyred while fighting until the last moment. The martyrdom of Sinwar will only be an additional incentive that drives our people and their resistance to cohesion and continuing the struggle."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said: "We mourn the leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the 'Al-Aqsa Flood' epic, and one of the prominent symbols of the Palestinian struggle.”

The Palestinian National Initiative said: "The assassination of the struggling leaders has not, and will never, break the will of the Palestinian people."

The Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine said: "The inspiring leader Yahya Sinwar will remain the living, beating heart of the nation, full of revolution and resistance. Sinwar's name will remain associated with the humiliation and defeat that covered the Zionist enemy."

Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement said: "Today we mourn a great Palestinian leader who spent his life as a fighter, leading from the frontlines, without hesitation or weakness. The sons of the Palestinian people and their resistance will remain loyal to the blood of the martyr leader Yahya Sinwar."

Iran’s foreign minister mourned Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, after the group confirmed his death on Friday.

“Yahya Sinwar did not fear death but sought martyrdom in Gaza. He bravely fought to the very end on the battlefield,” Seyed Abbas Araghchi said.

“His fate - beautifully pictured in his last image -  is not a deterrent but a source of inspiration for resistance fighters across the region, Palestinian and non-Palestinian,” he said, sharing a photo that purportedly showed Sinwar’s last minutes.

“We, and countless others around the world, salute his selfless struggle for liberation of the Palestinian people. Martyrs live forever, and the cause for liberation of Palestine from occupation is more alive than ever.”

"Sinwar ascended [to heaven] advancing and not retreating, engaging in the frontlines, moving between combat positions," he said.

"Hamas is determined to continue until the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he added.

Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas in Gaza, said in a televised speech confirming the death of Yayha Sinwar that Israeli captives will not return without a ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

He also said that the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel is one of his group's conditions to end the fighting, which started 12 months ago.

He mourned the "martyrdom" of Sinwar, and said the group has not been defeated.

"The death of our leader Sinwar and those [killed] before him will only increase the strength and resolve of our group," he said.

"We continue on the path of Hamas and the spirit of the Al-Aqsa Flood," he said, referring the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October last year.

"Our banner will not fall but will remain raised high," he added.

Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, announced in a televised address now broadcast on Al Jazeera that the group's former leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed by Israeli forces.

More than 100 Muslim Labour councillors have written to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanding an "immediate and complete suspension of arms sales to Israel".

The letter, coordinated by the Labour Muslim Network and signed by 114 elected councillors, cited "clear violations of international humanitarian law" by Israel.

"In the past few days alone we have seen images of Palestinian children and families burnt alive following Israeli military strikes at Al Aqsa hospital, and the continued shelling of schools used as shelter by displaced civilians," the letter read.

"That is why we have come together, as councillors, as Muslims, and as Labour members, to call on this Labour government to meet our moral obligation by suspending all arms sales to Israel until such a time that international humanitarian law is observed and respected."

READ MORE: More than 100 Muslim Labour councillors demand complete arms embargo on Israel

A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group cannot be eliminated with the killing of its leaders, but stopped short of confirming the death of its chief, Yahya Sinwar.

"Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated," Basem Naim, senior member of Hamas' political bureau, told AFP. 

In a statement, he listed several Hamas leaders killed in the past, and said their deaths had boosted the group's popularity. 

"It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people," Naim said.

"Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine." 

Reporting by AFP

The Israeli military said on Friday it sent another army unit to support its forces operating in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, where residents said tanks blew up roads and houses as they thrust further into the territory.

Residents of Jabalia in northern Gaza said Israeli tanks had reached the heart of the camp, using heavy air and ground fire, after pushing through suburbs and residential districts.

They added that the Israeli army was destroying dozens of houses on a daily basis, sometimes from the air and the ground and by placing bombs in buildings then detonating them remotely.

Reporting by Reuters

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he was "surprised" by a statement made by Iran's parliament speaker, which said that Tehran was ready to negotiate the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 with France in order to achieve a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Mikati said the Iranian statement "is a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish an unacceptable guardianship over Lebanon".

The Israeli army says it killed Mohammad Hussein Ramal, a Hezbollah commander, in an air strike on Taybeh, southern Lebanon.

The military says it also located and destroyed rocket launchers aimed at northern Israel and attacked a cell that was prepared to fire anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops operating in Lebanon.